Identifying Pottery Makers Marks

[blondeet6]

Hi All,  I'm not having any luck trying to figure out who this mark belongs to. Is it McCoy, Hull, California etc. etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks 

This is the mark

   176

   uSa

[patd3283]

Could we see the whole piece?

[jrkirk]

Yes, seeing the whole piece would be very helpful, but I do know that Brush-McCoy used a mark like this with the 'big' S in the middle of the USA. Brush-McCoy was a separate company from McCoy, and there are separate reference books for each company.

jk

[beatlefan1980]

Sorry about that, I've attached 4 more photos. Thanks again for any help. 

[jrkirk]

Could not find in my Brush-McCoy books, but the mark is definitely a Brush-MCoy style mark, with the slightly larger S in USA. Brush-McCoy, and McCoy are often confused, and I did find this same bowl identified as McCoy here on eBay, but this is not a McCoy mark. Hope this helps.

jk

[jrkirk]

We own over 500 reference books, and various old antique identification guides, and most of them are on pottery. However, having the books, does not mean that the information is right at your finger-tips.  These books authors knew/know the subject matter very well, but they were/are not great at creating a reference publication. Many books have no table of content, some have no subject index, or other list of overall content, and almost all feature lots of information on the authors and credits to others that is not relevant to the subject matter, so looking for information like this comes down to just going through page after page, and looking for a picture, or reading pages of text. Some books are better than others, but all fall short of being easy to use, and there are some who with the benefit of hindsight, are just plain wrong. Those requesting information like this should understand that their request means a time consuming effort at identification, and one that may  well end without a positive and correct id answer.

[madamezulu]

You didn't mention this is a maybe a $3 pot, especially with the extensive crazing, and with shipping would not be economical to sell on ebay.  Many contributors may not see the merit in doing research on this piece.

[janetpjohn_la]

And I would add one thing--a person telling you it is such and such without giving a book reference....
This could be identified by a seller as any number of things, then that gets repeated and quoted and can be totally wrong.
Janet

[rubiano98]

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@janetpjohn_la wrote:
And I would add one thing--a person telling you it is such and such without giving a book reference....
This could be identified by a seller as any number of things, then that gets repeated and quoted and can be totally wrong.
Janet

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Folklore does more damage in identifying vintage pottery, glass and jewelry than everything else put together.

[jrkirk]

I agree on the valuation, but then the poster never asked about valuation, just identification. Most photos posted here have little or no value, and it is only occasionally that something really worth much shows up here.